


Lady & The Tramp

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-27 14:23:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15026582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: In 1955, the year it came out, Carol, Therese, Abby, and Rindy, go see Walt Disney’s Lady & The Tramp at the Drive-In.





	1. Chapter 1

_ Manhattan, New York _

_ June, 1955 _

“Pick a letter, Aunt Abby,” Rindy spoke up excitedly, as she was lying on her belly on the rug floor at her mother’s new apartment. A white sheet of paper and her box of crayons were laid out below her. Abby was sitting on the sofa in the living room above the little girl, having one leg crossed, smoking. Peering down, she could see Rindy had drawn a black hangpole and noose.

“ _‘G’,_ ” Abby answered. She flicked some cigarette ash off with her thumbnail and began to listen to Rindy’s uncontrolled giggling soon as she drew a small circle for a head.

“No ‘G’,” Rindy said.

“ _’E’?_ ” Abby guessed. She decided to go with the vowels. Rindy had only five empty slots forming her word on paper. The mystery word should have an ‘E’ at least.

“Yes, there’s one!” Rindy exclaimed, scrawling out a lowercase letter ‘e’ on the last, fifth slot. 

“ _’A’?_ ” Abby went on, exhaling a bit of smoke from her nostrils. Her eyebrows rose up with confusion the minute Rindy drew a long, skinny neck below the bottom of the head. Rindy’s word didn’t have an ‘A’ in it, apparently. By the looks of getting only one letter from the entire alphabet, Abby sulked and felt like she was probably going to play this stupid Hangman game the whole night.

“Pick another letter, Aunt Abby!” Rindy urged. Her short legs were kicking back and forth high above the back of her. Part of her wanted Abby to guess the right letters, but the other side of her wanted Abby to lose, so that way she could draw and finish the rest of her hangman.

“Uh, _‘U’?_ ” Abby kept going safely with her choice of vowels. Relieved, she watched Rindy write out a lowercase ‘u’ on the third slot. The first, second, and fourth ones, were still missing letters.

A pair of headlights casted upon the apartment and seeped through the sea foam green, linen curtains drawn over the window behind Abby, along with a stalling, running noise of a car motor. Carol’s Packard had appeared and parked to a stop in the driveway. Faint voices of both Carol and Therese were coming towards the front side of the house with their feet crunching along through crushed up gravel. 

“ _Mommy’s home! And Aunt T!_ ” Rindy cried with pure delight. She dropped the royal blue crayon onto her drawn hangman piece of paper and quickly picked herself up off the floor. Running straight for the front door, Abby looked after her, helplessly: Wait, what about the game?

Rindy pulled the door open to let both of her mothers come in and stand in the hallway. “Hi, Mommy! Aunt T!” she greeted them equally with each leg wrapped hugs and kisses. 

“There’s my special girl... Hello, my sweetheart,” Carol greeted her daughter happily; bending over to cup both hands on Rindy’s cheeks. Kissing her, Carol had let go for Therese’s turn. Therese gave Rindy several kisses on the forehead to get her squirming before thanking her once the child started taking her leather briefcase away to go set it next to her typewriter on her study desk. Abby had been babysitting Rindy while Carol went to go pick Therese up from work.

“Where’s Abby?” Carol asked.

“Living Room,” Abby called out. She busily stubbed out her cigarette into the ashtray on the coffee table just as soon as Carol and Therese entered. 

“Hey. How are the Times?” Abby would traditionally ask whenever she got the chance to see Therese. And Therese would simply reply,

“They are fine.” And that was that.

“Aunt Abby and I were playing Hangman!” Rindy spoke up, running across from Abby on the couch towards her two mothers.

“That sounds neat,” Carol beamed, tossing a few strands of her mousy, brown hair. “Would you and Aunt Abby like to go see a brand new showing of _Lady & The Tramp_ tonight? The four of us can all go together...”

“Yeah, Yeah!” Rindy jumped up and down, all excited, grabbing both her mother’s hands and yanking them. “I really want to go see it, Mommy! Let’s go!”

“Aren’t we going to finish our game, honey? What about the rest of the missing letters?” Abby said, picking up the piece of paper off the floor and holding it out with protest.

“ _No, no, no, Aunt Abby! We can finish the game later! Now let’s all go outside and go see Lady’s Tramp!_ ” Rindy squawked, making both Therese and Carol crack up laughing over Rindy’s own version title of the latest Walt Disney technicolor film.


	2. Chapter 2

“Go grab a few of your blankets upstairs, Rindy,” Therese instructed. “That way when you’re cold, you’ll have them in good use at the drive-in...”

Rindy shouted back, excitedly, “ _The Drive-In! Yeah! Okay!_ ” before running upstairs to her very own bedroom.

Abby folded up the drawn out hangman piece of paper in half and then in fourths until it was small enough for her to tuck it inside the side pocket of her plaid skirt. 

“What’s the matter, Abbs?” Carol asked her.

“Rindy’s word,” Abby scowled. “It’s going to drive me nuts without me knowing it.”

Carol reached over to give Abby’s shoulder a comfortingly squeeze. Therese waited and watched Rindy come down the steps with her extra-large, sky blue wool blanket piled high into her arms. 

“I’m all ready, T,” she said.

“Good to know, sweetheart,” Therese smirked. 

“Are we taking the Packard, or your convertible?” Carol questioned.

“Let’s take my car,” Abby said.

**xxxx**

There were at least six or seven other cars parked along the drive-in’s empty, conservatory lot. Rindy wanted to sit outside with her blanket. Abby joined her, offering her another shot with their Hangman game.

“Is there an _‘O’,_ in this word?” she guessed.

“Yes!” Rindy exclaimed. She took the fountain pen Abby kept inside her purse and wrote the letter on the second slot.

“ _‘H’?_ ”

“Noo,” Rindy giggled, quickly adding a left arm. 

“How ‘bout an, _‘S’?_ ”

“Yup!” Rindy filled up the fourth slot. The only slot missing was the first one. It could only be...

“Ohhhh, _‘M’_ , as in Mouse! That’s the word?” Abby said hopefully. 

“Yes, Aunt Abby, that’s it!” Rindy finished completing the first slot with the letter M. 

Abby started tickling her, making her squeal, just as soon as the wide, billboard screen flashed with moving colors along with the opening credits. 

With Abby’s sunroof drawn entirely down, Carol was able to play the film’s sound perfectly loud by cranking the radio dial to the right station. Therese had been busy buying the buckets of popcorn and boxes of candy from the concession booth. By the time she was coming back with her arms full, the evening turned quickly into night, losing most of her vision. Adjusting her eyes to the darkness, Therese made her way back to Carol in the convertible. She spotted the silhouettes of Abby and Rindy bundled up together with the blanket on the dirt-paved ground. 

The billboard screening of the film was showing the audience Mrs. Darling receiving a female baby cocker spaniel puppy from her husband, Mr. Darling, as a Christmas present. Gushing over the animal, they’ve decided to name her Lady. Lady, wearing a ribbon bow that was tied around her neck.

Therese blinked at the colorful cartoon and thought it was cute. She walked towards Abby and Rindy to hand them their popcorn and box of chocolate. Thanking her, they began to snack and stare right up at the moving screen. 

Carol had one elbow poking out from the driver’s window, and gazed around once Therese appeared next to her at the passenger side. Smiling, Carol reached over to take the popcorn, allowing Therese to open the door and climb in. The two of them began to watch Lady having a hard time sleeping alone without her mommy and daddy. 

“Aww, just look at her,” Carol cooed. “So precious...”

Therese shook out a few chocolate snowcaps into her hands and popped them into her mouth. She leaned back, all relaxed, enjoying every bit of everything.

“Let’s get a puppy for Christmas,” Rindy whispered over to Abby. “We can surprise Mommy and Aunt T...”

“Okay,” Abby whispered back.

The scene changed to Lady having breakfast with the Darlings. Mr. Darling opened his newspaper with a huge hole in it with Lady standing there, on all fours, panting out, happily.


End file.
